From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

For some weeks now SWMBO has had difficulty accessing certain shopping
sites, notably Argos and Next. The error she gets ("Access denied blah
blah") only comes up fairly deep into the chain of clicks, right on the
spec page of a particular product e.g

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9782525? clickSR=slp:term:shop%20all%20big%20red%20floorcare%20offers:1:94:1


Her Firefox says it is up to date, version 115.39Oesr(64-bit), on Windows
7 Pro.

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

Handsome Jack wrote:

For some weeks now SWMBO has had difficulty accessing certain shopping
sites, notably Argos and Next. The error she gets ("Access denied blah
blah") only comes up fairly deep into the chain of clicks, right on the
spec page of a particular product e.g

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9782525? clickSR=slp:term:shop%20all%20big%20red%20floorcare%20offers:1:94:1

You don't need anything from the question mark onwards, it's just tracking.

<https://argos.co.uk/product/9782525>

Nevertheless, both long and short URLs work for me, have you/she tried clearing cache etc?

Her Firefox says it is up to date, version 115.39Oesr(64-bit), on Windows
7 Pro.

154.0.1 on Win11 here, but you're still supported for a few more months ...


--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On Mon, 31 Aug 2026 16:25:01 -0000 (UTC), Handsome Jack
<jack@handsome.com> wrote:

For some weeks now SWMBO has had difficulty accessing certain shopping >sites, notably Argos and Next. The error she gets ("Access denied blah >blah") only comes up fairly deep into the chain of clicks, right on the
spec page of a particular product e.g

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9782525? >clickSR=slp:term:shop%20all%20big%20red%20floorcare%20offers:1:94:1

Her Firefox says it is up to date, version 115.39Oesr(64-bit), on Windows
7 Pro.

Ditto as Andy... 154.0.1 on Win 11... and both short/long work. Gee,
-u380 for a sucking stick
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:50:43 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

Handsome Jack wrote:

For some weeks now SWMBO has had difficulty accessing certain shopping
sites, notably Argos and Next. The error she gets ("Access denied blah
blah") only comes up fairly deep into the chain of clicks, right on the
spec page of a particular product e.g

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9782525?
clickSR=slp:term:shop%20all%20big%20red%20floorcare%20offers:1:94:1

You don't need anything from the question mark onwards, it's just
tracking.

<https://argos.co.uk/product/9782525>

Nevertheless, both long and short URLs work for me,

And for me on my Linux machine, but not for hers.

FWIW the actual error message is
{
Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.argos.co.uk/product/
9782525" on this server.
Reference #18.b35d1502.1788196145.307da357 https://errors.edgesuite.net/18.b35d1502.1788196145.307da357
}

have you/she tried
clearing cache etc?

Yes.

Her Firefox says it is up to date, version 115.39Oesr(64-bit), on
Windows 7 Pro.

154.0.1 on Win11 here, but you're still supported for a few more months

With Windows 7 there's a limit to how far she can update; the FF program itself says she is up to date.

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

Handsome Jack wrote:

FWIW the actual error message is
{
Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.argos.co.uk/product/
9782525" on this server.
Reference #18.b35d1502.1788196145.307da357 https://errors.edgesuite.net/18.b35d1502.1788196145.307da357
}

well the error is coming from the argos server, has she got adblocking,
try with a blank test profile ... maybe argos are using newer javascript
the browser isn't processing as they expect?

have you/she tried
clearing cache etc?

Yes.

Her Firefox says it is up to date, version 115.39Oesr(64-bit), on
Windows 7 Pro.

154.0.1 on Win11 here, but you're still supported for a few more months

With Windows 7 there's a limit to how far she can update; the FF program itself says she is up to date.

That's true, but she's drinking in the last chance saloon, no updates
after March 2027?
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

Handsome Jack wrote:

For some weeks now SWMBO has had difficulty accessing certain shopping
sites, notably Argos and Next. The error she gets ("Access denied blah
blah") only comes up fairly deep into the chain of clicks, right on the
spec page of a particular product e.g

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9782525? clickSR=slp:term:shop%20all%20big%20red%20floorcare%20offers:1:94:1

Her Firefox says it is up to date, version 115.39Oesr(64-bit), on Windows
7 Pro.

Works ok for me from the US using 115.39Oesr/64 on Win7Pro.
Required cookie tracking - Required only.
uBlock - On.
Google analytics blocker - On.
JS - On.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

Jack,

With Windows 7 there's a limit to how far she can update; the FF
program itself says she is up to date.

I can reach that page (using the URL part before the question-mark) using FF 52 (the last one) on Windows XP.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser


--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:50:43 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk>
wrote:

Handsome Jack wrote:

For some weeks now SWMBO has had difficulty accessing certain shopping
sites, notably Argos and Next. The error she gets ("Access denied blah
blah") only comes up fairly deep into the chain of clicks, right on the
spec page of a particular product e.g

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9782525?
clickSR=slp:term:shop%20all%20big%20red%20floorcare%20offers:1:94:1

You don't need anything from the question mark onwards, it's just tracking.

<https://argos.co.uk/product/9782525>

Nevertheless, both long and short URLs work for me, have you/she tried >clearing cache etc?

Her Firefox says it is up to date, version 115.39Oesr(64-bit), on Windows
7 Pro.

154.0.1 on Win11 here, but you're still supported for a few more months ...

Windows 7, FF 115.36.0esr (64-bit)

"Access Denied

You don't have permission to access
"http://www.argos.co.uk/product/9782525" on this server.

Reference #18.ae9b645f.1788269961.127b2d9b

https://errors.edgesuite.net/18.ae9b645f.1788269961.127b2d9b"

None of my "NoScript" programs register the error page, so I don't
think it's them bugging Argos.

I'm in UKland.

When I click on the URL of the error page above, I get this:

"Uh oh! Something went wrong with the previous request.

If you navigated here, it's because the previous request experienced
an error. If you are the site owner, you can use the Translate Error
String tool to investigate this further. This is located on the
control center under:

Four-squares menu > Test & troubleshoot > Edge Diagnostics."

Even when I tell NoScript to allow its Java-stuff.


J.


--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On Tue, 01 Sep 2026 14:35:32 +0100, John <Man@the.keyboard> wrote:

"Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.argos.co.uk/" on this
server.

Reference #18.749b645f.1788270366.d318e0e

https://errors.edgesuite.net/18.749b645f.1788270366.d318e0e "

When I try https://www.argos.co.uk from the same setup.

Win-7 FF 115.


Strangely, my free MiniMac, with FF 128, initially denied me access,
so I tried searching for "Argos" in www.startpage.com" and was also
denied access, until I chose a hit lower down on the list. No it
allows me in.

My Win-box still doesn't, even with StartPage.

Weirds are occurring. :)

J.

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

John wrote:

Weirds are occurring. EfOe

Somewhere within Argos is a person who could fix your wife's problem,
but you will *never8 be allowed to speak to that person, just give up
now, let her use your PC to buy the dyson ...


--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

Handsome Jack <jack@handsome.com> wrote:

For some weeks now SWMBO has had difficulty accessing certain shopping sites, notably Argos and Next. The error she gets ("Access denied blah blah") only comes up fairly deep into the chain of clicks, right on the
spec page of a particular product e.g

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9782525? clickSR=slp:term:shop%20all%20big%20red%20floorcare%20offers:1:94:1

Her Firefox says it is up to date, version 115.39Oesr(64-bit), on Windows
7 Pro.

Same here with FF 140.15.0esr on Linux. I've seen the same thing
before with the "https://errors.edgesuite.net/" link at the end
when failing to access other sites. It's a system to detect website
scraper bots based on "browser fingerprinting", so something about
your request looks like it isn't coming from a normal user. That
something could be your ISP, your browser configuration, your OS,
or your computer hardware specs.

A site I used to regularly access is www.gumtree.com.au, but for
well over a year it's been blocking me with similar "Access Denied"
pages. I reported it to their support, with a note of my up-to-date
browser version, and just got the stock response that I should
update my browser. Actually it got worse since I upgraded from FF
v115 to v140, before that it would sometimes work if I reloaded the
page, but in v140 it never works.

However the exact same FF version running on another Linux PC could
still access the site fine. I eventually determined that the issue
was that the working PC was using hardware graphics acceleration
for WebGL, but PCs using software WebGL rendering or no 3D graphics
support at all get the "Access Denied" page. This is even though
the website doesn't use WebGL for any of its content - but they're
somehow getting the GPU specs, and using them to conclude that any
computer which can't do WebGL on a hardware GPU must be a server
running a web scraper rather than being used by a human.

If your PC has an old GPU which can't do WebGL, or just doesn't
have drivers for it installed, you might have the same problem.
However like I say there are a lot of possible "fingerprints" that
might offend them, and you can only find out which is your issue
(or really their issue with you) by tedious trial and error.
--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On 1/09/2026 11:46 pm, John wrote:

On Tue, 01 Sep 2026 14:35:32 +0100, John <Man@the.keyboard> wrote:

"Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.argos.co.uk/" on this
server.

Reference #18.749b645f.1788270366.d318e0e

https://errors.edgesuite.net/18.749b645f.1788270366.d318e0e "

When I try https://www.argos.co.uk from the same setup.

Win-7 FF 115.

Strangely, my free MiniMac, with FF 128, initially denied me access,
so I tried searching for "Argos" in www.startpage.com" and was also
denied access, until I chose a hit lower down on the list. No it
allows me in.

My Win-box still doesn't, even with StartPage.

Weirds are occurring. :)

Both your Argos web-links work in my SeaMonkey 2;53 on Win-11
--
Daniel70
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On Wed, 2 Sep 2026 19:01:29 +1000, Daniel70
<daniel47@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:

On 1/09/2026 11:46 pm, John wrote:

On Tue, 01 Sep 2026 14:35:32 +0100, John <Man@the.keyboard> wrote:

"Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.argos.co.uk/" on this
server.

Reference #18.749b645f.1788270366.d318e0e

https://errors.edgesuite.net/18.749b645f.1788270366.d318e0e "

When I try https://www.argos.co.uk from the same setup.

Win-7 FF 115.


Strangely, my free MiniMac, with FF 128, initially denied me access,
so I tried searching for "Argos" in www.startpage.com" and was also
denied access, until I chose a hit lower down on the list. No it
allows me in.

My Win-box still doesn't, even with StartPage.

Weirds are occurring. :)

Both your Argos web-links work in my SeaMonkey 2;53 on Win-11

That is strange.

The URL doesn't work in my Opera, 95.0.4635.90, nor does the https
link work in my FFox. I don't know if anyone noticed but the error
message refers to "HTTP ...", not "HTTPS ...", while the URL in the
addressbar is definitely "HTTPS ...".

It seems like something hasn't been updated at the Argos end.

J.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On 2 Sep 2026 09:04:30 +1000, not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd
Kev) wrote:

Handsome Jack <jack@handsome.com> wrote:

For some weeks now SWMBO has had difficulty accessing certain shopping
sites, notably Argos and Next. The error she gets ("Access denied blah
blah") only comes up fairly deep into the chain of clicks, right on the
spec page of a particular product e.g

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9782525?
clickSR=slp:term:shop%20all%20big%20red%20floorcare%20offers:1:94:1

Her Firefox says it is up to date, version 115.39Oesr(64-bit), on Windows >> 7 Pro.

Same here with FF 140.15.0esr on Linux. I've seen the same thing
before with the "https://errors.edgesuite.net/" link at the end
when failing to access other sites. It's a system to detect website
scraper bots based on "browser fingerprinting", so something about
your request looks like it isn't coming from a normal user. That
something could be your ISP, your browser configuration, your OS,
or your computer hardware specs.

Oh.

So, it's something *I* have done? Well, that's okay, then. I don't
mind that. I wasn't going to shop there, anyway. :)

I was just adding an anecdotal data-point to try to help. I don't
suppose that I did. Sorry.

A site I used to regularly access is www.gumtree.com.au, but for
well over a year it's been blocking me with similar "Access Denied"
pages. I reported it to their support, with a note of my up-to-date
browser version, and just got the stock response that I should
update my browser. Actually it got worse since I upgraded from FF
v115 to v140, before that it would sometimes work if I reloaded the
page, but in v140 it never works.

My FF is 115, and my OS is Win-7. I am *NOT* updating.

However the exact same FF version running on another Linux PC could
still access the site fine. I eventually determined that the issue
was that the working PC was using hardware graphics acceleration
for WebGL,

I don't think my 2013 machine even knows what hardware acceleration
*is*. 2013 is several years ago and many, many thing have been changed
since then.

but PCs using software WebGL rendering or no 3D graphics
support at all get the "Access Denied" page. This is even though
the website doesn't use WebGL for any of its content - but they're
somehow getting the GPU specs, and using them to conclude that any
computer which can't do WebGL on a hardware GPU must be a server
running a web scraper rather than being used by a human.

Or, possibly, they *intend* at sometime to have WEBGL implemented, or
had a meeting about it sometime in the past and a flag was added to
their page.

If that is the issue, then nothing I'm willing to do will help me.
So, fuck them. If they don't want me, then they can forever do without
the potential dozens of pounds I might have spent there. I am sure
that the loss will bankrupt them instantly. :)

If your PC has an old GPU which can't do WebGL, or just doesn't
have drivers for it installed, you might have the same problem.

That is highly likely. 2013, Win-7, not going to update.

However like I say there are a lot of possible "fingerprints" that
might offend them, and you can only find out which is your issue
(or really their issue with you) by tedious trial and error.

It's not worth it to me, I was simply trying to help. It might be
worth it to the original poster.

For my part, I'm done. Thank you for the information and help. It is
nice to know, even tentatively, that it is me that is broken and not
the Internet. Millions of people rely on the 'Net but no one cares
whether I can use it or not. Realistially, not even me. :)

Thank you.

J.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On Tue, 1 Sep 2026 15:11:33 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk>
wrote:

John wrote:

Weirds are occurring. ?

Somewhere within Argos is a person who could fix your wife's problem,

If you're quoting me then you should know that *my* wife doesn't have
an Argos problem. She's beyond having problems. She's in what the
medical professionals call "a stable condition". She's been seriously
dead for years.

There are advantages to this. She no longer has issues with accessing
her banking web-site, for example.

but you will *never8 be allowed to speak to that person, just give up
now, let her use your PC to buy the dyson ...

I would but she's really not interested any longer.

She does have a terribly short attention span.

But I agree with your assessment. It used to be that *I* was "the
person who could help" but I've retired. Whether the company has a
good, effective, available and nice replacement is something I neither
know nor care to.

Oh, I not only *could* but I *did*, often.

I don't, now.



J.


--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On Tue, 01 Sep 2026 14:35:32 +0100, John wrote:

Even when I tell NoScript to allow its Java-stuff.

Are there still sites using Java?

Maybe you need to turn on JavaScript.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.software.firefox

On Sun, 6 Sep 2026 04:15:40 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D|Oliveiro
<ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

On Tue, 01 Sep 2026 14:35:32 +0100, John wrote:

Even when I tell NoScript to allow its Java-stuff.

Are there still sites using Java?

Maybe you need to turn on JavaScript.

My apologies, I was lazily intending to include Java and JavaScript
and any other "Java"-named software. I guess it didn't work? :)

J.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2